


5 kisses (plus 1)

by openhearts



Category: Perfect Harmony (TV)
Genre: 5 Things, 5 Times, F/M, I did in fact tag every character, kissing!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26925526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/openhearts/pseuds/openhearts
Summary: "Is this really the best idea?" Ginny hedges.  "Won't it just end up makin' things kinda awkward?"
Relationships: Arthur Cochran & Ginny Hawlings, Arthur Cochran/Ginny Hawlings
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	5 kisses (plus 1)

**Author's Note:**

> Yes Ginny, it is in fact a GREAT idea. Behold.
> 
> (I miss this sweet show so much you guys.)

1.

"Oh Ginny, look at that! Lucky us!"

"What?"

Jax points upwards. "While I don't endorse giving in to the lusts of the flesh, I do believe in giving and receiving loving affection among friends in the spirit of Jesus' affection for us, so-"

"Jax got platonically horny and put up mistletoe," Arthur sighs as he comes around the corner from the bathroom, scrubbing at his cheek. "What the hell does that lip gloss have in it?” he asks Leann, alarmed. “I think my skin is going numb.”

"That's how you know it's working," she says cryptically, not looking up from her phone.

Jax turns back to Ginny and holds his hands out like he's just yelled surprise. 

"Is this really the best idea?" Ginny hedges. "Won't it just end up makin' things kinda awkward?"

"Don't be silly!" Jax replies quickly, waving away her concern. "If anyone would rather blow a kiss from a safe distance no one will judge you."

"I will!" Arthur interrupts, "I will judge you! I was not informed of this policy. Cheeks at a minimum, everybody, I didn’t get my face covered in this glittery crap for nothing."

Leann raises an eyebrow. "You should feel blessed that anything from the Fenty product line has touched your old-ass-"

"Ooohhhkay, well who am I to say no to a little Christmas spirit!" Ginny interrupts, laughing nervously.

"Who the hell is Fenty?" Arthur mutters to the room. 

Ginny leans in gingerly and pecks Jax somewhere near the corner of his mouth, then quickly goes back to getting her tea.

Choir practice continues uneventfully until the end, when Adams is refilling her travel mug and Wayne wanders over to dig through the candy bowl.

"We-heh-h-ell, lookie here," Wayne chuckles, leaning against the table right next to Adams and gazing upward.

Adams looks up and rolls her eyes, then turns to address the group. "Alright look. I'm not a total Grinch, but it's only December 1st and I am not spending the next twenty-four days engaging in this petri dish of good cheer. I will kiss this fool one time right now on the mouth, and then I am done with this nonsense for the rest of my natural life, understood?"

"Deal," Wayne answers immediately, holding out his hand to shake on it.

Adams takes his hand, which Wayne uses to yank her into his arms, dip her, and kiss her deeply for a solid five seconds.

Jax shakes his head frantically for a moment before covering his eyes, Arthur stands transfixed with his eyebrows climbing to where his hairline used to be, and Ginny blindly grasps Dwayne's arm so tight he winces.

The following Thursday evening at the next practice, Dwayne and Karla are arguing with Adams over which item she should add to the Moonbow’s menu next, and before they know it she's led them to the half wall dividing the rehearsal space from the kitchen and pivoted so they're under the mistletoe.

"I could say this was about matchmaking since you two can't stop bickering,” she interrupts, “but really I'm just tired of listening to it. Now," Adams motions them on expectantly, "kiss and shut up."

Karla scowls and even Dwayne rolls his eyes as he leans down. They both seem to be aiming for cheek but due to a lack of communication end up with their lips pressed together. They don’t immediately jump away. 

Ginny leans over to Wayne and whispers, “Is it weird I kinda want them to get married now?” 

"No, but the food at the weddin's gonna suuuuuuck."

They break apart and Karla glares in Wayne's direction but Dwayne looks a little punch drunk.

After that everyone waits so cautiously in line at the table set with water, tea, and coffee, that just getting everyone hydrated uses up half their practice time.

“Alright, Jax, as disturbing and disruptive as this has been, the mistletoe has to come down for choir practice. You people can do whatever weird incestuous stuff you want on your own time as long as you promise never to tell me about it.”

“But Arthur this is such a fun team-building activity! What if we compromise? I’ll move the mistletoe to a new place before each practice to prevent any more traffic jams,” Jax pleads.

Arthur curls his lip hesitantly. “Alright whatever, as long as it doesn’t take up rehearsal time. We’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re going to be ready for the Christmas concert this year.”

Jax claps in excitement.

“Platonically horny was right,” Adams mutters to Arthur when she’s on her way out past him.

At the next practice on Sunday afternoon Ginny and Quinn are chatting as they find their sheet music in the little bookcase against one wall when Jax yelps from the other side of the room before he can help himself. When they both look up in surprise he points above their heads to where the mistletoe is balanced on top of a clock hung on the wall.

“Dangit, got me again,” Ginny jokes, then grabs Quinn’s chin and pecks him on the lips.

Wayne, who had been waiting behind her to get his own music, walks right up, stops, stares up at the mistletoe, stares back down at Quinn, shrugs, and gives him the same dip-and-kiss as he had Adams. 

Junior balks at Ginny but she just shrugs. “To be honest with you I’m not that surprised,” she sighs, going back to her sheet music.

Wayne sets Quinn back on his feet and claps him on the shoulder good naturedly before grabbing his music and wandering away. 

Quinn holds up a finger. “Is this your gum?”

“You go ahead and keep it champ, I got more,” Wayne shoots back with a wink. He sidles over to Ginny and elbows her. “By the transitive property, you and I just frenched, just want to let you know that.”

“Now you know what transitive means?” Arthur asks incredulously. “Alright, that’s two in one day, that’s enough, mistletoe is cancelled for the rest of practice. And Quinn? No gum, I don’t care where you got it.”

The following practice no one can find the mistletoe, which distracts everyone from singing to the point that Arthur demands Jax retrieve it so they can get it over with and focus. When Jax can’t remember where he put it either they all enlist to help him, Arthur grumbling even more and leaning obstinately against the little desk below the corkboard against one wall. Eventually Ginny comes over and leans next to him. The search has spread out to the whole building and they’re the only two left in the rehearsal room. 

“Seems like you’re in a bad mood anyway today, even without the mistletoe thing.”

Arthur shrugs. “I’m not a big fan of public displays of affection. Plus it’s taking valuable practice time away. I know we’re not exactly looking down the barrel of a competition right now but that’s exactly why we should be sticking to good rehearsal habits, not- . . . what.”

Ginny bites her lip, smiling, and points up and over his shoulder. Arthur turns, and sees tucked up in one corner of the bulletin board, the mistletoe. He sighs. “Of course.”

Ginny laughs and leans in to press a soft kiss to his cheek. “I’ll get ‘em all back for practice,” she adds.

_

2.

“How come New Years is the drinkin’est holiday? Isn’t a whole new year excitin’ enough?” Ginny asks, waving her beer bottle around with each expansive gesture. Arthur rolls his head to the side to look at her from where he sits beside her on a pine log bench on the front porch of Dwayne and Wayne’s house. 

“I think it’s more trying to obliterate the last of the shitty memories from the year before, right?”

“But they can’t all be,” Ginny protests. “I don’t care how crappy your year was, somethin’ good happens, even if it’s somethin’ little, and that’s exactly when you shouldn’t try to forget, because-”

The party inside grows louder, starting a countdown from ten in unison over the pounding music Arthur had come outside to escape.

“Well I guess that’s it, then, no more time for good things this year,” Arthur mutters, holding up his glass of bourbon for Ginny to cheers with her beer bottle. Ginny shoves his shoulder playfully and he grins, looking up to say something when she catches his eye.

Ginny leans in, still giggling, and kisses Arthur messily on the lips just as the countdown reaches “one.”

3.

“Y’know it’s not that I care that he’s dating again, it’s just that she’s so . . . she’s so-!”

“You,” Arthur mutters.

“Yes!” Ginny crows. “Her name is Jenny, for corn’s sake!”

“He could have at least found a perky blue eyed blonde with a different sounding first initial.”

“Thank you!” Ginny slaps her towel down on the counter and puts a hand on her hip. “Arthur,” she says, still a bit out of breath from her rant.

“Hm?” he asks tiredly. He’s half-laying on the counter, his head propped on one fist.

“Did you bring a flask into the Moonbow on a Tuesday night?”

“It’s yours actually, I never gave it back after that thing last year. And you never asked for it, which is weird, do you own multiple flasks?”

“I thought I lost it,” Ginny mumbles.

“Also where the hell did you keep it in that thing you were wearing?”

“What?”

“That thing,” Arthur gestures vaguely at her, “the thing you were wearing at the thing. It was tight.”

“I had a purse,” Ginny answers, confused and suddenly blushing. She swallows. 

“Gimme that,” she takes the flask and knocks it back.

“I don’t think I’m supposed to serve alcohol here.”

“You’re not supposed to serve anything, you don’t work here,” Ginny clarifies, taking another sip. She leans her elbows on the counter and groans. “I really don’t feel like closing tonight. Not after Jenny.”

“Is it really her specifically, or is it just that Wayne’s dating anybody but you?”

“I don’t know,” Ginny sighs. “We were together for so long. I was fourteen when we started dating. He was my first everything, y’know? Then even after our marriage was a bust, it was just comfortable to be with him even though it was not the best thing for me, or Cash. I do not want him back,” Ginny adds, looking at Arthur as if to convince him. He shrugs back agreeably. “It’s just so weird seein’ him with someone else.”

“Well. Kind of someone else,” Arthur corrects. Ginny taps the back of her hand against his arm and rolls her eyes. 

“If she hadn’t been wearing that . . . insanely bright pink thing I wouldn’t have known who was who from . . . a distance.”

“Why, ‘cuz you can’t see that well anymore?” Ginny teases him.

“No I was going to say from behind but that’s not true ‘cuz you’ve got a cuter ass,” Arthur mutters.

Ginny coughs on her next swallow from the flask. Arthur shrugs shiftily. “Fine then, don’t take the compliment.”

He snags the flask from her hand and drains the rest, then drops it on the counter with a clatter and flicks it, making it spin.

“Uuuugggghhhh,” Ginny groans, pushing her hands back through her hair and finally pushing off the counter to stand straight. She watches Arthur tapping the flask to make it keep spinning and breathes out a small laugh.

“What,” he asks, not looking up.

“The first time Wayne kissed me was during a game of spin the bottle. I was so scared, my palms were sweatin’ like you wouldn’t believe.”

“I’ve seen your pre-performance jitters, I believe it.”

“He was all awkward-”

“He’s still awkward.”

“I had a mouth fulla braces.”

Arthur just smiles and hums in acknowledgement.

“It just kinda sucks realizing all your firsts are gone, y’know?” Ginny adds, reaching out and tapping the flask herself. They both watch it spin and spin, and eventually slow and wobble, making its last revolutions until it comes to a stop with the cap pointing to Arthur.

He looks up to find Ginny already watching him with a boozy little smile on her face.

“Don’t look at me,” he laughs, “you’ve already kissed me twice.”

“Twice?” Ginny asks, surprised. 

“Mistletoe and New Years,” he lists.

“Mistletoe was on the cheek! That doesn’t count. Nobody counts their first cheek kiss Arthur, are you really that old fashioned?”

“Hey shut up, it’s charming.”

“Either way, mistletoe doesn’t count.”

Arthur shrugs and looks back down at the flask, nudging it again. This time it stops on Ginny. He bursts out laughing.

“Oh alright already,” Ginny laughs. She leans across the counter, grabs him by the lapels, and kisses him firm and close-mouthed, but not particularly quickly.

Then she pulls away and slaps her hands lightly on the counter between them.

“Don’t just sit there gettin’ drunk, help me get this place closed,” she says, and reaches under the counter to toss a bar rag at Arthur. 

“You’re kinda mean when you’re all melancholy and depressed,” he whines. He spins the flask one more time, fast enough that it wobbles and slides right off the counter and clatters to the floor.

“That doesn’t count!” Ginny calls from the broom closet.

_

4.

"No, no, you're still flat."

"Now you're sharp."

"Those aren't the right words, we're on the second verse."

Ginny groans and spins around on the piano bench next to Arthur to face away from the piano. "It sounds the same to me every time! Why can't I get this?"

"Believe me, if I knew, I would tell you," he sighs. "You'll get it." He closes the lid over the keys and leans on it with one elbow.

Ginny slumps forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "Arthur it's a week before Easter, I'm not gonna get it in time."

"Sure you will." He turns too and leans back against the piano, stretching his arms up above his head and yawning. 

He pats her back and then pulls his hand back to his lap. "Just go home, take a break, rest your voice."

"No, come on, give me one more chance and then we can quit for the night, I promise. Please?"

Arthur sighs and acquiesces, turning back to the piano and opening the lid. Ginny turns too and sits up straight. He plays the accompaniment and she sings. Arthur looks from the keys to her and back again, nodding along while Ginny reads the music and glances over at him occasionally to check in. 

She gains confidence as she goes, watching Arthur when she gets to the part she'd been having trouble with and going on, smiling around the words at his emphatic nod, continuing until the very last note.

"Yes!" Arthur yells, taking his hands off the keys and clapping. 

Ginny squeals and then cheers herself, both of them talking over each other.

"Did I do it? I got it right?"

"That was it, that was perfect, do it like that-"

Ginny throws her arms around his neck and hugs him, then pulls back and mashes her mouth to his impulsively. Arthur mphfs against her mouth in surprise at first but then he kisses back enthusiastically, cupping her jaw with one hand and angling her chin to deepen it. After a few more fevered seconds he pulls away, his hands gently going to her wrists to take her hands from around his neck.

Ginny stares at him, still smiling, her mouth opened in shock. "Oops."

Arthur laughs nervously. "Uh, yeah, just. Sing it like that every time. The congregation will never know what hit them." His voice cracks and he quickly stands from the piano bench and backs up a step. 

Ginny stands too, pressing her hands to her jeans nervously. “Sorry, was that weird?”

“No, just . . . y’know, I’m -sober.” Arthur winces. “I didn’t mean that like that, what I meant was-” he gestures wordlessly. “It seems like that’s a weird thing to do when neither of us have been drinking. I mean . . . right?”

“Oh. Yeah, really weird, sorry. I was just so excited I finally got that part right I guess I got carried away. Sorry. I’ll- sorry.”

Ginny snags her purse and jacket and leaves quickly. Arthur watches her go and frowns to himself.

_

5.

It takes a month for things to go back to normal between Arthur and Ginny, but they do, mostly. After their Good Friday and Easter performances there’s Regionals to prepare for, plus Ginny starts taking over more of the day to day operations of the Moonbow from Adams.

The first week Cash goes back to school after spring break, Ginny’s truck breaks down one morning. Cash has already missed the bus, so she calls Arthur.

“Hey, I’m sorry to ask this, but could you come pick up Cash and bring him to school? Wayne’s helpin’ Dookie with somethin’, and I have to get to the bank to pick up change and open the Moonbow, and he missed the bus already, and-”

“Hey hey hey, take a breath. I’ll be right there, okay?”

“Oh Arthur thank you so much, I-”

“Make me a cup of coffee, I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Ginny flies around the house finishing getting herself ready, packing Cash’s lunch, and throwing together breakfast for him. She’s barely got Arthur’s coffee made when he opens the door, knocking on it as he does.

“Morning,” he calls, glancing from Cash sitting at the banquet to Ginny flying around the kitchen. “You gonna help her with any of this or just sit there?”

“When I try to help she freaks out. It’s better just to let her wear herself out.”

Arthur nods sagely. “Cash! Lunch!” Ginny announces a little snappishly. He gets up obediently, takes the lunch bag, water bottle, granola bar, and banana she gives him. “You have a good day, I love you,” she adds, cupping his face and kissing his forehead with a smack.

“Yes ma’am, love you too!” he calls as he high tails it out to Arthur’s car. 

Ginny presents Arthur with a travel mug of coffee, and also a granola bar and a banana, and once she’s piled everything into his hands they peck on the lips briefly as he’s turning to go, Ginny calling out “have a good day, love you!” and Arthur answering “you too!”

Ginny stops short when the door closes behind him and stands perfectly still in her kitchen for a solid ten seconds, until she hears Arthur’s car backing out of the driveway. She presses her hands to her face and bends at the waist until she's face down on her kitchen island and groans. 

Thirty minutes later when she’s unlocking the doors of the Moonbow her phone buzzes with a text from Arthur.

“Don’t make it weird.”

She laughs and looks up when the door opens to see Arthur there already, sticking his phone back in his pocket. She tilts her head and smiles at him through pursed lips.

“Morning,” he repeats mildly as he scoots by her toward his booth. He sets the travel mug she’d given him on the table to be refilled when she comes by with the coffee pot.

“Thank you, again, for driving Cash. It was just one of those crazy mornings, I was like a chicken with my head cut off, I swear, you ever have one of those-”

“Ginny.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t make it weird.”

Ginny smacks him lightly on the shoulder and takes the coffee pot with her, smiling secretly to herself for the few moments she’s got her back turned to Arthur.

_

+1  
Regionals

They don’t win. They do get second place. The group erupts in cheers, all of them jumping and hugging and high fiving. In the back of the huddle, Ginny throws her arms around Arthur’s neck and he wraps his around her waist, leaning back so her feet don’t touch the floor. “You did it,” he says, mouth muffled into her shoulder, and she laughs happily, leaning back to look up at him with a glowing smile when he sets her back on her feet. This time he kisses her.


End file.
